Loss due to poor sanitation

One of the foremost water and sanitation related non-government organisation (NGOs), WaterAid Bangladesh, claimed recently that the country loses a hefty Tk 295.5 billion a year, or 6.3 per cent of its GDP, due to the far-reaching impacts of poor access to safe water and sanitation and unhygienic habits and conditions. Given the projection that almost half the population in the next decade or so would be living in urban areas, 'the immense challenge to the cities' can hardly be over-emphasized. WaterAid's country strategy plan for the next five years therefore is rightly focused on 'promoting and securing poor people's rights and access to safe water, improved hygiene and sanitation.' The situation in the capital itself, forty years after independence, is quite appalling. One cannot but be struck by the dearth of reasonably maintained public toilets and the utter lack of awareness about hygiene among food sellers and consumers alike under the open sky. Most people seem as indifferent as Bangladesh's decision makers themselves to this glaring deficit. Added to this is the general apathy with regard to the most basic do's and don'ts with regard to communicable infections. Most think nothing of sending sick children to school, or travelling in air-conditioned trains and buses, or sneezing, coughing and spitting with abandon, oblivious of the germs they deploy as a consequence. National and international NGOs, that have long been involved in water - and sanitation-related activities, keep pointing out that Bangladesh must work harder to reach the pledged Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ---- 'Sanitation for All' by 2013 and 'Water for All' by 2011. But the fact is although these basic and vital amenities for civilized life get projected often enough, actual achievement is poor. A great deal more needs to be done if progress is to be accelerated. Given the fact that much of the disease burden in Bangladesh ---- almost 80 per cent ---- is intricately linked to poor nutrition and the lack of basic sanitation and safe drinking water, the government must be made to pay more attention than before to addressing such issues in view of their impact on the nation's health and well-being. This is indeed a very serious need under the circumstances prevailing in the country. Children in poor households are the worst victims, as evident in the fact that thousands of them die every year in Bangladesh, or suffer from lifelong morbidity, as a consequence of illnesses due to unsafe drinking water and inadequate sanitation. Although improved drinking water today is claimed to be available and accessible to 86 per cent of the population, with respect to better sanitation, it is only 54 per cent. There is no valid reason why progress in sanitation should be lagging behind. After all, affordable, locally produced components for rudimentary sanitary latrines for rural Bangladesh have been available everywhere, as claimed by those involved in it for decades. It may be that the standard information-education-communication (IEC) component of this valuable intervention, has not been as vigorous as the high-profile rallies, seminars and shows in the cities of Bangladesh. Is it acceptable that the capital of a potentially middle income country should have such a deplorable public sanitation standard to display in the form of so many open air defecation and urination spots, instead of adequate, reasonably managed, public toilets? The government and its development partners clearly need to do more to accelerate real progress.